Three Important Elements of Building Healthy Relationships with Young Children

Children have the ability to absorb information, at a young age their brains are literally like sponges. That’s why it’s so important that you find the right, reputable, childcare Liverpool for them.

The experience they have when they are young will shape them for the rest of their lives, you have a responsibility as a parent and a career to give them the best possible start in life.

What may surprise you is that you can build a strong and healthy relationship with any child, that will help them in the future, and all you need are these three elements.

1. Listening

The key element to building a relationship with anyone, young or old, is the ability to listen to what they want.

It doesn’t matter how young the child is, they have a voice and they want to feel like they are being listened to. That means you actually need to listen and respond, you can’t simply go through the motions as children will know this.

Listening encourages children to formulate their own opinions on life. This builds confidence and curiosity, both of which are essential to a happy and healthy life.

2. Choices

The next element of a healthy relationship with children is to give them choices. You can make the decision for them every time and they’ll probably be happy because you’re interacting with them.

However, this provides no long-term benefit. Everyone needs to be able to make their own decisions in life. Providing children with choices, even if it’s just a choice between two things, will help them know their own minds.

It also helps them to feel in control of their environment which can be both confidence-building and calming. Of course, you need to listen to the choice they’ve made and act on it.

There is no point in allowing them to choose an activity than doing what you wanted anyway, that’s where listening comes in.

3. Support

Children won’t get it right every time. But, adults don’t always get it right either. If you want to build a healthy relationship with a child you need to support them, whatever they decide.

If it goes well congratulate them. If it goes badly then help them to find the silver lining. They will appreciate your support and, even though it may not seem like it at the time, they’ll see you as someone they can rely on.

As a parent or a carer looking to forge relationships with children, there can be no stronger bond that the confidence the other one will always be there for you.

It can be hard to let your child choose a path that leads to failure. But, it’s an important learning process and it will help you to build a healthy and strong relationship with them. All you have to do is step back but be there.

In many ways building a healthy relationship with a child is the same as building one with an adult. The main difference is that children are more accepting, it’s harder to mess it up with them, but not impossible.